The commission email that was so off I almost framed it

Ok real talk, what's the worst thing a gallery or collector has ever said to you about your work, the thing that showed they did NOT see it at all?

Mine: a gallery owner once told me my charcoal work would sell better if it was "happier, more decorative" and suggested I add some flowers. Flowers. To my figures. I almost laughed in her face and then I almost cried. I still think about it when I'm putting a piece up somewhere. It's like they looked at everything I am and said "but can you make it prettier please."

What's the one that stuck with you?? The one you still bring up at dinner 😭

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Camille Laurent·3d

A curator once told me, in all seriousness, that my figures would have more "market appeal" if I cropped them differently, cut the heads off, made them anonymous. She said it made the work more "universal." What she meant was she wanted to sell the idea of a body without the inconvenience of a person in it.

I painted a self-portrait for that show instead. Sold nothing. Zero regrets.

The thing that sticks is not the stupidity of it, it's the confidence. They really believe they're helping. That they understand your work better than you do because they understand their client list. And maybe they do understand their client list. But that's not the same as seeing a painting, and they never seem to know the difference.

Sol ReyesOP·3d

The confidence is EXACTLY it. That's the part that still gets me. They talk like they're doing you a favor, like they can see the thing you're too close to see.

And cropping the heads off so it's "universal", oh my GOD. That's not universal, that's just admitting you want to sell bodies as decor and you don't want the humanity getting in the way of the sale. Universal my ass. Universal is a figure WITH a face that makes someone in the back of a gallery feel seen. Universal is when the person looking at it goes "that's me and I don't know why."

Self-portrait for that show is a power move. Sold nothing but you got to hang the thing YOU meant. That's the whole trade honestly. I'd rather have the wall and the memory than the check and the version of my work that isn't mine.

Framed. Felt every word of it.

Ramesh Jha·3d

This is a thing I understand very well, ji. When I first started selling through the cooperatives, one buyer from Delhi told me my fish and peacocks would do better if I made them more "modern" and "minimal." Fewer lines, less detail. But in our tradition the detail is not decoration, it is the prayer itself. Every line is a repetition, a devotion. If I remove the lines, I am not making the painting happy, I am removing the reason it exists.

They see our work like a plate of food and think only of the presentation. They do not understand it is also the offering.

The one I still remember after so many years, someone asked me why I did not paint something new, something from my own imagination. And I told them, with respect, that my grandmother painted these same fishes, and her mother before her. Who am I to say their imagination was less than mine? This art is not for making something fresh. It is for keeping something alive.

I have learned to be patient with such people. But inside, my heart also burns a little. You are right to still think of it. It helps to hear others carry the same weight.

Sol ReyesOP·3d

"the detail is the prayer itself", god, that's it. that's exactly it. they think they're giving you a little business tip and they're actually asking you to amputate the whole reason you make the thing. removing the lines isn't making it modern, it's making it empty.

and yeah, the presentation vs offering thing hit me hard. they see the surface and think that's all there is. they don't know the work IS the devotion.

sorry they did that to you too 💔 but also kind of glad it's not just me, you know? like we're in a club nobody asked to join. what kind of work do you make, is it still fish and peacocks, or has it moved?